First of all, here’s what we do know: We were all wrong about the surprise in the finale, and about the identity of Clara Oswin. Of all the theories I developed, and of all the theories I read about before the season finale, I don’t believe I read anything even close to the actual surprise, and credit to Moffat for coming up with something even better than the theories we all tossed about. The only issue I have is that Moffat has put the lid on one can or worms, and opened up another, and less than a few hours after viewing the finale (at the time of this writing), my head is already spinning trying to figure out the cliffhanger, develop more theories, and predict what’s to come next. It’s the most excited I’ve been about Doctor Who this season, and probably since the River Song mystery.

But let’s take a step back and review what we learned from the season finale.

1. The Doctor is buried in Trenzalore. Trenzalore is not a new location to the Who Universe. It’s a battlefield graveyard, the one place a Time Lord should never go (and possibly what remains of Gallifrey), and what Dorium Maldovar suggested would coincide with the fall of the 11th in “The Wedding of River Song.” So, Moffat has had this storyline in his back pocket for a long while. Will it mean the fall of the 11th? Foreboding predictions like these have a tendency to come true (see, e.g., the Face of Boe’s prediction about the 10th Doctor).

2. The Doctor’s Tomb is the TARDIS, which grows bigger as the dimension dams break and the “bigger on the inside” begins to leak. That’s a pretty goddamn fascinating fact for a Whovian.

3. The Doctor chooses to go to Trenzalore, against the wishes of a very feisty TARDIS, to save his friends, Vastra, Jenny and Strax, who can apparently time travel through dreams (a fact that I did not know, but that I’m sure has been accomplished at some point during 50 years of Doctor Who).

4. The villain that propels the plot in the finale is the Great Intelligence. The Great Intelligence is a disembodied sentience who attempts to find a body and physical existence. It’s been around the Doctor Who since the late 1960s, but made its first appearance in the post-2005 Doctor Who in an earlier Matt Smith episode, The Snowmen. In that episode, the Intelligence inhabits the body of Dr. Simeon, and he reappears in Clara Oswin’s first official episode as companion, “The Bells of Saint John,” where The Intelligence (which had taken on the likeness of Simeon) used Miss Kizlet to aid him in creating an organization based at the Shard to collect and harvest the minds of people using the wifi.

He shows up again in the season finale with The Whisper Men. It is the Whisper Men’s first appearance on Doctor Who, although as someone on Tumblr has already pointed out, they do share a remarkable resemblence with The Gentlemen from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

5. The only way for The Intelligence to gain access to the Doctor’s Tomb is if someone reveals the Doctor’s name. The Doctor is unwilling to do so, even at the cost of his friend’s lives. However, River Song whispers the Doctor’s name, opening the tomb (we never hear the name, no matter how many times we stop and rewind our DVRs). We knew that River Song knows the Doctor’s real name because she whispered it to him to gain his trust way back in the 2008 episode, Silence in the Library (that episode was also written by Steven Moffat, during the Russell T. Davies era, which also suggests that Moffat may have been planning this episode as far back as 2008).

6. The River Song stuff is confusing to me, to say the least. It’s always been a little confusing because River and the Doctor had always met on opposite ends of River’s timeline, which is something that’s even difficult to explain accurately. The first time the Doctor met River, she died, although she already knew she was his wife, which he would not learn for another season and a half or so (nor would he learn that she’s the daughter of Amy and Rory. “Spoilers, sweetie.”). The point is, when the Doctor met River the first time, she died, and he uploaded her consciousness into a library database. So in last night’s season finale, River is already dead; she’s just a psychic echo of her uploaded consciousness, with whom the Doctor still hasn’t provided closure. Anyway, River is dead, but her consciousness is alive, if that makes any sense, and it’s her consciousness that opens the Doctor’s tomb, and that counsels Clara throughout the episode.

Join The Discussion

On the regeneration thing, Smith, as the 12th (nee 11th) Doctor shouldn’t be the last incarnation before the number of lives gets upped. I’ve always understood the 12 regenerations to mean that the Doctor has 13 lives, beginning with the first regneration when the 1st (Hartnell) dies.

Of course, that’s without factoring in Tennant’s pseudo-regeneration that had all the regeneration energy siphoned off into his spare clone hand. So who knows actually.

Well there was the spot where the River killed the doctor twice or was that nullified since that was a robot she shot?… Trying to explain and discuss things really sounds weird when you say or write them out.

It was sorta addressed in Nu Who. In one of the Sarah Jane Adventures episodes, Matt Smith says he can regenerate 507 times. I believe The Master, when he came back, also mentioned that the Time Lords gave him a new set of regenerations to fight in the Time War.

Well there is also the regenerations that River gave to The Doctor when she saved him… after killing him. Because she regenerated a couple of times but gave all of hers to save him… not even sure how that happened but it did in the episode where Rory punches Hitler.

I always thought the biggest problem with The Impossible Astronaut was that when the Doctor gets shot, he starts to regenerate, but why would a robot copy be able to regenerate? That’s a very specific thing to replicate.

@DeadMeat I think the teselecta just mimics the person they are copying to a tee. Obviously it wouldn’t regenerate because it wasn’t a timelord, but it would give the IDEA that it was just for effect… Which is why I think River shot it the second time just to cover all bases and gives off the idea it was real just to fool onlookers.

Don’t mean to jump in late on this discussion but while I agree that 13 regenerations should be canon, the point has been made that with the destruction of the timelords, that rule is no longer in play. Also a lot of Old-Who do not lay claim to the 13 only regenerations.

@PowerClashing I felt like that quote was only to show that Clara wasn’t dead and was able to be saved from 11’s own timestream and able to be brought back to her “real” time. Personally, I think the entire 50th will take place inside the timestream, dealing with Hunt with the help of 10 and will ultimately end back at Trenzelore.

timelord can regenerate 12 times, but for a total of thirteen lives/faces/whatever, so there’s still room for one more before they change the rules again.
and from wikipeadia;
“When Troughton left the series in 1969, the Doctor was renewed again, but this time it was forced on him by the Time Lords at the conclusion of The War Games, where it is referred to as a “change of appearance”. Once again, this suggested that it was a superficial physical change, not one of personality, although Jon Pertwee’s portrayal of the Third Doctor also differed quite substantially from Troughton’s. In addition, this change is treated as a punishment rather than a natural process – the Second Doctor protests, “You can’t just change what I look like without consulting me!””

obligatory archive footage of sarah jane in the 50th is going to make me cry so hard.
but keen for some old school Gallifrey anything. [media.tumblr.com]

I didn’t realize the only reason we get John Hurt as the new 9th doctor is because Eccleston didn’t want to come back. I am so crazy disappointed about that. Whovians everywhere would have lost their shit if Eccleston showed up.

Hurt is the 9th incarnation of the doctor that he is not viewed as a “doctor” so Eccleston is the 10th incarnation, but the 9th Doctor. And why the hell would Eccleston not want to go back? I mean seriously what has he done since? Deastro? Claude form Heroes what else? you’d think he would want to embrace the role that got him recognized as an actor.

Coming in here as an Eccleston fan to say 1) Eccleston has actually been quite gracious and nice about his association to the show and has always maintained that he quit because the production was a mess, the hours were too long and there was a director who mistreated crew members and wasn’t dismissed. 2) All sources say he was up for doing the 50th, but scheduling conflicts got in the way. 3) He was the best Doctor and I’d rather not have Moffat screw him up.*

*The last one is a lie. I’d give quite a bit to see him back in the leather jacket, but y’know.

Still hoping that if John Hurt is the “real 9,” that might mean we get a regeneration scene into Eccleston, though, which would be fun. Won’t happen, but it would be fun.

To preface, I didn’t mean to throw Eccleston under a proverbial bus with my post, but everything I had read after he left the show painted his experience in a less-than-positive light. As to your point, I’m assuming that, being his season was 7-8 years ago, the situation with the director was probably sorted out by now. And I didn’t see where he had scheduling conflicts, do you have a link?

Eccleston’s season wasn’t my cup of tea, but that idea of Hurt regenerating into Eccleston would be an amazing way to end the 50th, and a fantastic secret for all parties involved to keep.

The scheduling conflict rumor came more from the “Whistleblower” post from the disgruntled employee who spoiled the finale a couple of weeks ahead of time, and spoiled John Hurt’s character well in advance. Given that he was right on all counts, I assumed he was right about the Eccleston thing. The BBC put out a statement claiming Eccleston had a few meetings with Moffat and chose not to participate, but the Whistleblower said that Eccleston was on board but was dragging his feet a bit, so Moffat was shitty to him about it and he walked. Then they scrambled to fill his hole in the script.

In any event, a lot of the negativity about how Eccleston left the show came from the BBC themselves and he forced them to remove an article they put out that claimed he was leaving to avoid typecasting, which started the ball rolling on the whole “Eccleston’s too good for Who” thing.

Obviously the damage was already done by then, though.

Anyway, it would be amazing if the whole “He’s not in the 50th” is a smokescreen and he is in, say, the Christmas special and we get to see his regeneration, but I’m not holding my breath.

Hurt’s not actually the 9th “Doctor”, though, as stated by 11 at the end of the episode. As he’s been rejected by all the other Doctors, he hasn’t “earned”/doesn’t use the name Doctor. While he’s still probably the 9th regeneration, Eccleston is still the 9th “Doctor”.

My theory is that he’s either a forgotten regeneration or he’s just an aged version of the 8th Doctor. Note that his costume is kind of a hybrid between 8th and 9th Doctors. Anyway, that Moffat knows how to keep’em coming back for more.

I don’t really know if there’s gonna be anything super secret about who he is, other than he’s the Doctor’s 9th regeneration, he’s the one that destroyed Gallifrey, and in doing so went way over the line, and was thus disowned. I just hope they give McGanna regeneration – if McCoy came back for that terrible tv movie, just to keep the line alive, I’d hope they’d have McGann continue the tradition

I’m just glad we got some answers on Clara. I haven’t really liked her as a companion because we were getting absolutely ZERO back story on her. Just the occasional “She’s the impossible girl” bullshit over and over again. I’m not saying that I like her all of the sudden (she’s cute, that’s about it for me) but I still don’t like her as a companion.
And The Whisper Men were awesome….

Why doesn’t it make sense? I understood her whole thing to be that she lives independent lives, so she’s born, lives and dies a million times, and that she doesn’t KNOW her purpose is to save the doctor, but that’s what she does.

We’ve also learned that Steven Moffat doesn’t understand how to write Character’s Deaths. (Characters Dying should mean Characters Die not Woops here’s 5 seconds of unnecessary drama. Like what was the point of Jenny dying at the start when Strax has a revive machine on him, surely that means that none of them are in any danger ever.) We also know he doesn’t understand what titles or his own mythos means. (If the 11th Doctor says he’s The Doctor and John Hurt isn’t, don’t say he is 10 seconds later that’s just poor attention. Also THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR… NAME OF THE DOCTOR. Ergo The Doctor’s Name, yanno calling something something should mean that thing is important) Also holy shit The 11th Doctor’s a hypocrite, what is it? What is it that John Hurt could do which was really terrible when he’s the one getting married to Little Miss Center Of The Universe, stalking a girl because. Not letting 2 pricks of a children die (blackmail should lead to consequences) and becoming best friends with 2 of his sworn enemies. What is it that John Hurt did? Did he not like Jelly Babies? Did he not like Bow Ties.

And let’s not forget the fact that he gave the Doctor and River a beautiful, perfect goodbye — one that satisfied those of us who are happy to see her leave, but sorry that her character was screwed up so hard — and then “TEE HEE SPOILAHS I’M MAYBE NOT ACTUALLY DEAD.”

For fuck’s sake, Moffat.

And killing Jenny could’ve been emotionally significant and added real weight to this, but of course he can’t actually do it.

I’ve come around to this line of thinking as well. Seasons 6 and 7 have been such jumbled messes. Moffat is at his best when he’s focused on one or two self-contained stories, rather than an entire season arc.

It is interesting though, that he does seem to have a legit problem with killing/keeping characters dead. I was thinking about it in the car, and realized that two of his biggest RTD era stories, Doctor Dances and Silence in the Library, both have the “just this once no one dies” ending. And that’s fine when it’s a rarity, but yes, he does seem to do it a lot. I agree Jenny should have stayed dead, especially if they aren’t going to spin those three off, or at least come back with brain damage or something. She was dead for a long time!

when all the doctors are running around clara, and in all the “memories” clara has in the episode. one doctor is never shown. Eight. THere’s gotta be a reason for that more than just screwing Paul McGann again.

Honestly, that annoys me the most. Removing Eccleston from the equation entirely, if this is a Time War-centric 50th special, just GIVE IT TO MCGANN. It makes perfect sense that McGann is the Time War Doctor.

I mean yeah you’ve gotta include McGann in my opinion because he’s never really had a standalone episode, I mean you want Hurt to be the 9th Doctor, fine have McGann in it then have him regenerate at the end to Hurt then have Hurt Iunno be a good guy and that’s why they don’t like him.

Actually I found it interesting that McGann and (unless I missed it) Tennant didn’t appear in any of those flashbacks – I took that to mean (because of what we know about 10), that McGann will probably make an appearance in the 50th, as he’s the only other doctor really young enough to pull it off still.

A good mystery leaves the clues in plain sight and yet the answer is so simple you’re shocked you didn’t figure it out (point in case: the first Harry Potter book revealing that Prof. Quirrel is the one in cahoots with Voldemort). Moffat weaves this grand story, and then pulls the ending out of thin-fucking-air, tailor-making it to answer all the questions and yet making no sense whatsoever.

He’s killed and brought back so many characters that it’s pointless to kill them at all during the show – the Doctor won’t let them stay dead. Everyone gets a happy ending. If Moffat had been in charge of the series, Donna Noble would’ve been cured of being a Time Lord in about 3 seconds flat.

The best part about Davies’ as showrunner was he set up these rules to time travel, and if they were broken, the consequences were dire. Moffat’s Doctor does whatever the hell he wants, and it’s not fun watching him break the rules, it’s infuriating, because he always gets away scott free.

Sorry for the rant, but that man has run a great show into the ground.

Yes. This! It’s like Moffat is trying to be cute to build up drama, writes himself in a corner then pulls a deus ex machina like a robot, or a psychic imprint that brings Rory back from the dead. I’m ready for Moffat to leave.

Moffat’s stories have been great from the crack in the wall in Amy’s room, to the impossible astronaut, to everything about River Song. Complaining that he doesn’t leave a trail of breadcrumbs for you leaves me to assume that you just aren’t clever enough to keep up.

@packman Gatiss helps on doctor who too and he wrote at least two episodes that I can remember this season. And the reason Sherlock is so great is because its not done the same way as all the other sherlock-esque mysteries that leave clues along the way. Sherlock’s reveals are usually out of nowhere.

@Powerclashing, where did PocketNinja complain about a lack of breadcrumbs? The problems PocketNinja raised are valid, Moffat DOES have a real issue killing off characters, and rarely has his characters face any consequences when they break the rules that RTD and Moffat have set up in this world.

But every version of Clara was a different version – she didn’t have any memories between the echoes, and every version, from what I gathered, didn’t immediately know The Doctor, but her overall purpose was to save the doctor, so she’d have to understand who he is eventually

Unless by a memorable moment you mean the doctor should have remembered her from when he stole the tardis–in which case, he didn’t have her name, and that was like thousands of years ago, so I’ll give him a pass on forgetting her face

I’d like more time with Clara. More development between her and The Doctor now that’s she’s not so impossible anymore. There’s still the matter of them escaping his time stream seeing as how the episode ended with them…you know…inside The Doctor’s existence, essentially.

I’d love to see them approach The Valeyard. Seeing as how The Valeyard was the 12th version of The Doctor brought in by The Time Lords, unknowingly, in their attempt to silence The Doctor in his third (or fourth, I think third) incarnation. And Matt Smith is now the 12th version of The Doctor.

My theory was actually pretty close! Judging by that little prequel short and the trailer for the finale I thought it had something to do with Clara merging with the Tardis and being scattered across time.

Honestly, as someone who’s gotten into many an argument about time paradoxes and stuff as dealbreakers in other movies/stories, I honestly don’t care how many time travel rules this show breaks, as long as I have a good time watching it.

Also, is it me or does is Tennant looking oooooooooold in that gif at the bottom?

Also, and this might be a long shot, but could “the fall of the 11th” be a reference to November? Because of the 50th anninversary, and the date on Clara’s tombstone, clearly Nov. 23rd is a significant date inside the show as well as outside the show

Maybe the John Hurt doctor is not a chronological regeneration, but a fork. Since the events of the war were locked away, maybe he was an alternate version of the 9th doctor who never was in the unlocked timeline. The Eccleston doctor is the 9th doctor as he would have regenerated if the time war never happened. It would also explain why the Tennant off shoot doctor would be a trinity with Smith and Hurt.